Blog Post

UGC, Not UGC: It is About the Economics of Context

Spanish ad holding company Havas recently created a digital media R&D division called Havas Media Lab, headed by our London-based friend Umair Haque. Now the Lab has come out with a provocative white paper, titled: The Economics of Consumption: User Generated Context. The full PDF paper is here (PDF link).

Its hypothesis: media companies and investors have been focusing on the wrong usage of UGC: instead of user-generated content, it should really be user-generated context, and gives its own opinion on why it

4 Responses to “UGC, Not UGC: It is About the Economics of Context”

Rafat & Umair,
I say, Well done!
I am a Brand Consultant with a background as an Entertainment Talent Agent. The first thing that comes to mind is that a product, company, service, etc. has a "Q" rating that is based on the cume of the Consumer's Context "Cloud." I read User message boards, forums and countless posts that keep me well informed on User Context. I can tell if a post is planted.

The web provides endless arena's to be educated and informed, the ultimate free focus group. All you have to do is pay attention. Attention goes both ways, the company seeks to lure, grab and convert. The consumer asks "Who are you, what do you do and why should I care?" or "What is that, what does it do and will it make me happy?"

So thank you so much for fantastic interpretation of the tangible and the intangible currency. That is soul of the disconnect for the clients.

Perhaps this will expose too much of my own ignorance, but I've never been able to understand Umair's writing. Other people seem to get it, and talk highly of him, so there's obviously something there, but at least what I've read on Bubblegen has always been impenetrable to me.